And Now, Paranoia

I'm not really an anonymous blogger. You can easily find out my name and where I am and what I think and what I do for a living. After all, my blog, The Dream Antilles has about 900 posts over more than 5 years, so what I think and write is by now no surprise.

Today, though, I had a bit of a paranoid moment.

I have a google alert in my actual name, so that when my name appears anywhere on the Internet, I will know where it appears and what it says about me. Today I got one of those emails.

It referred to me by name and it was a quote from an essay I published at Writing in the Raw on December 8, "I'm Bernie Sanders, And You're Bernie Sanders, Too" Hmmm. The same quote also appeared here at Dream Antilles, at docuDharma, at Wild Wild Left, and maybe daily Kos.

The quote:

it was the most important political speech-- by far-- of the past two years. Seldom, if ever, has anyone seized the spotlight to discuss and examine so thoroughly the plundering of the nation by its wealthiest citizens.

The problem wasn't the quote, or that it left out the part I liked best of the second paragraph of the essay. No. The problem, if it was one, was that I was quoted by name in Al Jazeera..

I have no animus for Al Jazeera. But there are a lot of people who do.

And now friends of mine who I told about this odd quotation are asking me how long it will be before I am on the no fly list, and how long it will be before I come up on "Patriot Act" searches, and how long it will take me to cross the US - Canada border, and whether my phones are now being tapped, and I'm being followed at a discreet distance wherever I go.

Very funny. I guess. I guess I'll see about this. Won't I?